of Learning in the modern Greek and other Oriental Churches as also that of the Moscovites ‖ l. 5. c. 1. even amongst their Monasticks Priests and Bishops which industrious disparaging of their Science shews he hath no mind to stand to their Judgement He relates their many Superstitious and ridiculous Rites and Ceremonies in Religion their extreme Poverty and so how easily they are to be gained to say or do any thing with the Money or to speak it in better Language with the Charities which the Latines frequently bestow on them Hence these Nations being so ignorant their sentiments in Religion are less to be valued 2. He proceeds ‖ l. 2. c. 2. c. to tell us the many opportunities §. 321. n. 4. the Latines have had of introducing Innovations and propagating the Roman Faith in those Countreys 1. By so many Western Armies that have passed thither for the Conquest of the Holy Land and have settled there to maintain their Victories and so kept the Orientals in Subjection for near 200 years By the inability of the later Grecian Emperours to defend their Dominions and so their often endeavouring to accommodate Religion after the best way for their Secular advantages and that was by a Conformity in it with the West 3. By the continual Missions of Priests and Religious of all Orders each of them striving to have some plantation in the East especially the Missions of Jesuites thither who by their manifold diligence in instructing their children educating their youth distributing many charities to the necessitous playing the Physitians teaching the Mathematicks c. insinuate also into them their Religion having corrupted also several of their Bishops Hence we may imagine these Missions of the Latines having thus overspread the whole face of the East and practising so many Acts to change its Faith it will seem a hard task to prove concerning any particular Testimony procured from thence that the persons subscribing it are no way Latiniz'd no way tainted in their judgement and that they are not already circumvented and won over in some Points though perhaps they may still stand out in some others All this He doth to shew the great industry of these Missions to pervert the Truth there But indeed manifests their indefatigable zeal and courage through infinite hazards to advance it negociating the Conversion of Infidels as well as the instruction of ignorant Christians And Roman Catholicks are much indebted to M. Claude for his great pains in giving so exact an account of their Piety 3. Having premised such a Narration as this §. 321. n. 5. to be made use of as he sees fit for invalidating the Testimonies of the modern Greeks 3ly He declares that he doth not undertake at all to shew that the Greeks concur with Protestants in their Opinion concerning our Lords presence in the Eucharist and much complains of his Adversary for imposing such an attempt upon him L. 3. c. 1. It is not our business here saith he to shew whether the Greeks have the same Faith which we Protestants have on the subject of the Holy Sacraments This is a perpetual Illusion that M. Arnauld puts upon his Readers but whether the Greeks believe of the Sacrament that which the Church of Rome believes And l. 3. c. 13. He saith He would have none imagine that he pretends no difference between the Opinion of the Greeks and Protestants and he thinks that none of the Protestant Doctors have pretended is And Ibid. after his stating of the Greek Opinion To the censure that he makes it peâ—â— raisonnable he saith * p. 336. That to this he hath nothing to answer save that Protestants are not obliged to defend the Sentiment of the Greeks and that his business is to enquire what it is not how maintainable And saith elsewhere That both the Greeks and Latines are far departed from the Evangelical simplicity p. 337. and the main and natural explication the Ancients have given to the Mystery of the Eucharist Here then 1st as to the later ages of the Church Protestants stand by themselves and the Reformation was made as Calvin confessed it †Epist P. Melancthoni à toto mundo 2. After such a Confession M. Claude seems not to deal sincerely in that with force enough he draws so frequently in both his Replies the sayings of the Greek writers of later times to the Protestant sense and puts his Adversary to the trouble of confuting him And from the many absurdities that he pretends would follow upon the Greek Opinion taken according to their plain expressions saith these intend only * a Presence of Christs Body in the Eucharist as to its Vertue and Efficacy opposite to its Reality and Substance and * an Vnion of the Bread there to the Divinity only so far as the Divinity to bestow on it the Salvifical Virtue or Efficacy of Christs Body and * a conjunction of the Bread there to Christs natural Body born of the Blessed Virgin but to it as in Heaven not here to it as a Mystery may be said to be an Appendix or Accessory to the thing of which it is a Mystery But all this is the Protestant Opinion 3. Again seems not to deal sincerely in that whilst he affirms the modern Greeks to retain the former Doctrine of their Church as high as Damascen and the 2. Council of Nice ‖ l. 3. c. 13. p. 315. and again †l. 3. c. 13 p. 326. l. 4 c. 9. p. 488. Damascen not to have been the first that had such thoughts viz. of an Augmentation of Christs Body in the Eucharist by the Sanctifyed Elements as it was augmented when he here on earth by his nourishment but to have borrowed them from some Ancient Greek Fathers naming Greg. Nyssen Orat. Catechet c. 37. See this Fathers words below § 321. n. 14. and Anastasius Sinait who explained their Doctrine by the same comparison as Damascen and the Greeks following him did yet doth not freely declare both these the Ancient Greeks as well as the later either to differ from or to agree with the Protestant Opinion § 321 4. Having said this n. 6. That however the Greek Opinion varies from the Protestants it concerns him not Next he declares That what ever the Greeks may be proved to have held concerning some transmutation of the Bread and Wine into Christs Body and Blood or concerning a Real or Corporal presence and their understanding Hoc est corpus meum in a literal sense neither doth this concern his cause who undertakes only to maintain that these Churches assert not Transubstantiation at least assert it not so as to make it a positive Articles of their Faith His words upon D. Arnaud's resenting it That whereas he contented himself only to shew that the Real presence was received by the Oriental Schismatical Churches M. Claude diverted the Controversie to Transubstantiation His words I say are these *
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE COVNCIL OF TRENT BEING The Fifth Discourse CONCERNING The GVIDE in CONTROVERSIES By R. H. 1 Pet. 3.15 Parati semper ad satisfactionem omni poscenti vos Rationem 2 Cor. 6.8 Per infamiam bonam famam Ut seductores Vcraces Printed in the Year MDCLXXI The Preface IN the former Discourses concerning the Guide in Controversies as also in the Beginning and Conclusion of this present I have endeavoured to perswade a necessicy of Obedience to a lawful Church-Authority from these weighty Considerations whereon seem to be built the Unity and the Peace of Christian Religion 1 First That However the Holy Scriptures are a Rule sufficient yet not in respect of all capacities a Rule so clear but that the true sense of them is by several Parties much disputed and that in points of Faith necessary to be known And therefore as to these need of some other Guide for the direction of Christians in this true Sense 2 That there is contained in these Scriptures a Divine Promise and that not Conditional but Absolute of Indefectibility or not erring in Necessaries made to the Church-Catholick of all Ages To It not only Diffusive some or other Persons or Churches alwaies not to erre in necessaries but as a Guide or to the Guides thereof 3 Again That the Catholick Church throughout â—he whole World is but One ever contradistinct to all other Communions Heretical or Schismatical And its Governours and Clergy however dispersed through several Nations regulated by the same Laws and straitly linked together in a due subordination whereby the Inferiors are subjected to the Superiors and a Part to the Whole in such manner as that these Laws observed admit of or consist with no Schisms Divisions or contradicting Parties after any past Declaration of the Church 4 That in this Subordination no inferior Clergy Person Church or Council when standing in any opposition to their Superiors can be this Guide to Christians But only the Superior whether Person or Council and in a Council not wholy unanimous the major Part join'd with the See Apostolick The major part whether those present in the Council and decreeing matters in debate or those absent and accepting their Decrees A regular obedience in any contradiction thus ascending to and acquiescing in the sentence of the most supreme in present actual being That also these subordinations of Church-Governours are so commonly known and by the learned on all sides acknowledged that even a Plebeian following this line though amidst so many Sects calling him hither and thither and all offering to shew him the right way cannot mistake his true Guide 5 That from this present Guide thus discovered All are to learn both as to the true sense of Holy Scriptures and of Antiquity or former Church-Tradition and also the legalness of former Councils c. when any of these are controverted and questioned the Resolution of that which they ought to believe and adhere to so far as its Determinations have prescribed to their Faith And the more important any point is that they are hence the more strictly obliged to the Declarations of this Authority because here more danger in their mistake That here if we grant an Infallibility of this Guide in Necessaries which is amply proved this bindeth its Subjects to an universal acceptance of its Decrees lest perhaps in some Necessary their Faith should miscarry Or this Guide supposed Fallible which presupposeth in such matters some obscurity in the Rule yet neither thus are the bonds of their obedience any way relaxed since their own fallibility is much grearer And if in following such a learned and prudent Conduct they are exposed to some error yet so to much more and more gross by following their own Of the mischief of which Self-conduct the many modern most absurd Sects and especially the Socinians are a dreadful Example Who very inquisitive and laborious and critical as to the Holy Scriptures yet by throwing off the yoke of a legal Church-Authority are by the Divine just judgment delivered up to most Capital and Desperate errors and those running through the whole Body of Divinity 6 That none in the resistance of Authority can be secured by following his Conscience though alwaies obliged to follow it when It culpably misguiding him and in the information whereof he hath not used necessary diligence 7 That where such a weighty Church-Authority I speak of the most supreme to which the Churches Subjects may apply themselves so highly authorized and recommended to us by our Lord sways on the one side and only Arguments and Reasons relating to the matter in Agitation but all these short of certainty on the other here a sober and disinteressed Judgment cannot but pass sentence that it is safer to submit to the first of these than relie on the second And then so often the following our reasons and private opinion and deserting Authority becomes acting against our Judgment and Conscience and the forsaking our private Reason acting according to it 8 That thus at least all those who have a contrary perswasion to Authority but short of certainty i. e. all illiterat and plebeians unable to examine Controversies or also learned that after examining them are left still in some doubt which two sorts will comprehend the most Christians are engaged in Conscience to yield their assent to the Decisions of this Authority 9 That an absolute and Demonstrative Certainty indeed where-ever it is is exempted from all such obedience to Authority as shall require submission of Judgment and Assent But that such a Certainty is very difficultly attained in matters Intellectual and abstracted from sense more difficultly yet in those Spiritual and Divine especially such Divine and Spiritual matters where Church Authority i. e. so numerous a Body of learned and prudent men discern little reason for that we pretend Certainty of and so much against it as that they declare the contrary for certain To which may be added the frequent experience of our own weakness when by more study and better weighting and comparing contrary Reasons we come to doubt of the truth of several things wherein formerly we thought our selves most fully satisfied 10 That supposing such a Certainty attained and so obedience of Assent justly repealed yet if this be of a Truth of no great importance or consequence of which great importance too as well as of the truth it self they are to be certain here still another Obedience viz. that of silence or Non-contradiction tyes us fast and rests still due and payable to Church-Authority And so these Certainists or Demonstrators become at least tongue-tied and constrained to stand single and disinabled to father or beget Sects 11 Or in the last place if this also Certain that it is a Truth of great concernment and the Error of the Church-Guides therein not only manifest but Intolerable and so they here obliged also to break this second obedience silence and to publish such truth
Proceedings § 5. 4 That Several of its Decisions are without or contrary to Scripture to Primitive Tradition and Tyrannically Imposed § 6. 5. That the Decrees of the Council touching Reformation were meerly Delusory § 6. THE most General Councils that can be procured joyned also with S. Peter's Chair § 1 being asserted in the former Discourses †Of the Guide in Controversies as the Supreme and Final Judge and Decider of Ecclesiastical Controversies And of these Councils That of Trent being as the last so particularly applied to the Examining and Determination of all those Points of Difference which have lateliest afflicted these Western Churches so that if the Protestant Party could be induced to accept and acquiesce in its Judgment all modern Controversies of moment were ended it seems necessary for perfecting the Design of the former Discourses in the last place so far to vindicate the Supream Legal and Obliging Authority of this Council from the many Objections which Protestants bring against it as that the more moderate among them may clearly see that if they are willing to submit either their Judgment or their Silence to any such Council as the present times of the Church can afford they have no just reason to deny it to this of Trent To manifest which I will first set you down the chief Particulars that are ordinarily urged by the later Reformed Writers against It And then shew you what in the same Particulars may be said for it leaving both to your sober Arbitrement as in a matter which is of no less concernment to you than the setling of your Faith in so many weighty Points of Religion as this Learned and Wise Assembly hath determined About which Points others still remain questioning and disputing Divided as from the Church so among themselves and uncapable of a Remedy I wish you in the Reading of this accompanied with Soave's History on the one hand and that of Pallavicino on the other to whom for avoiding tediousness I shall often refer you To the first as an Author of much Reputation with Protestants and one who it seems would let no Falficy pass prejudicial to their Interest To the second as One who though of an opposite side yet contrary to Soave's practice is careful in matters of Weight to signifie the Writings from which he extracts his Intelligence Nor do I herein exact from a Protestant Reader more credit to him that his Margin or other known History secures Yet if that be true that Cesar Aquilino a Roman Catholick and quoted for this by a late Protestant Writer ‖ Stillingst Rat. Account p. 481. saith of him That he hath done more disservice to the Church of Rome by his Answer than ever Father Paul the unmasked Pietro Soave did with his History I have reason from this also to hope that what I shall have occasion to cite out of him will pass with the more credit and better acceptation to a Protestant Reader since both the first and second of these Histories are still pretended to advance their Cause And yet further since the things wherein Aquilino saith ‖ Aquilino p. 95. this disservice consists are these Quod in illâ Historiâ offendatur Romanorum Pontificum fama Haereticorum dictae enumerantur amplificantur Rixae Contentiones Scandala inter Catholicos quae in Concilio acciderunt sigillatìm referuntur out of the Vatican Archives he perused Quae bona recta he means advantageous to the Catholick Cause à Petro Soave enarrata vel minuuntur vol praetermittuntur vel in contradictionem vocantur in all which Pallavicino seems only censured for not writing more cautiously and partially on the Roman side 2 and for not drawing the Council and the Actions of it much fairer and smoother than the Truth in those secret Papers and Records he consulted did discover them 3 lastly for imprudently publishing what the greatest Patrons of this Councill are said †Soave 7. l. Init. to have hitherto with the greatest Art concealed I shall I say the more confidently for this make use of his Testimony without any further Vindication of his Veracity desiring Protestants to make their advantages of an Author reported so much assisting their Pretensions and partaking so little of the Arts of a Politician and that valued more the fidelity of an Historian than the promoting of the Roman or his own Interest which Himself also sometimes as freely professeth as they say truly observing That History is like a Picture then better and more commendable when it represents not what is fairest but what likest to the Original § 2 This Council then being assembled since Luther's Reformation and purposely disallowing and condemning it very solicitous and diligent have the Reformed likewise been in multiplying Arguments against it Especially they being assisted with the History thereof delivered by Petro Soave Polano i. e. as is supposed by Protestants Father Paul a Venetian Friar Yet indeed against whose sincerity in composing this work there seem not wanting many real Exceptions if you please to consider with me 1 First That he lived in the time of the great dissention between the State of Venice and the Pope and then also was engaged in Writings against the Pope's Proceedings whence he may be suspected in this work also to have been too much biassed by a contrary Interest 2 Again That whenas he was but eleven years old at the concluding of this Council and so could write nothing out of his own knowledge but out of the Relations and Notes of others Printed or Manuscript yet very seldom in things of so great moment doth he inform the Reader whence he extracts his matter and is contradicted in many of his Relations by Pallavicino referring herein to the Records of this Councill extant in several places and to many other Writings sufficiently common of such Persons as were Members of the Council or publickly employed in its Affairs the Names of which he sets down in his l. 18. c. 10. n. 14. and out of which he saith he compiled a good part of his own work yet none of which Writings as he collects from several passages of his History had come to Soave's view 3 Next That for those things wherein this Author lies under no suspicion of Errour as to the matter related yet seems he frequently very culpable as to the Colours he lays upon it For whereas no action can be for its substance so good but that it may be vitiated and change its nature from several Circumstances so often as it is done out of an ill intention or for some impious end of Policy Ambition Covetousness or the like Nor again scarce any Truth can be in its own light so clear and evident but that some Veri similities may be ranged on the other side to obscure and cloud it this Author for the first of these through the course of his History may be observ'd contrary to the Modesty which is particularly
proper to Hâ—storians to asperse and blemish the most specious and candid actions of those though the most sacred Persons whose interests he disfavours with some or other uncharitable Gloss upon them and to represent the fairest fruit they bear still worm-eaten with some corrupt Design or malignant Intention for which a bare possibility thereof seems his sufficient warrant to affirm it And again for the second constantly after each Session of this Council He under the Mask of the vulgar talk and common Fame takes liberty to sum together all that which he apprehends may any way disparage the precedent Decrees and that which perhaps never entred into any ones save his own fancy 4 Lastly That he was a Person with whom the Arch-Bishop of Spalato had an intimate Acquaintance and of whom also he gives this Character in the Preface to the first Edition of this History London 1619. which Preface is omitted in the latter as some think because it too manifestly discovers the Historians Dis-affection to those whose actions he relates That he lived so in the Roman Captivity as to guide himself by a right Conscience rather than the common Customs That he had a great Zeal to the purity of Religion against such unexcusable i. e. Roman depravations thereof That he abhorred those who defended the Church of Rome's abuses as holy Institutions and professed Truth wherever found was to be embraced That this his work was only known to him and some others his great Confidents From which as also from some Extracts out of his Letters holding correspondence with some French Hugonots mentioned in Casoni's Preface to the Second Volume of Pallavicino may easily be gathered that his Religion was much-what of the same temper and complexion with that of Spalatensis Unless perhaps we may think that after his writing this Book he return'd to a better mind and that from this change came that reluctance of his Spalatensis mentions ‖ Prefat to Soave's History for communicating this work Nay as the same Bishop relates it ‖ a Purpose to have quite suppressed and made it away Destinato ad essere sommerso dal suo Genitore Which thing as he imputes to his fear of some danger from it so Charity will rather judge that it proceeded from remorse of Conscience when in a pious reflection upon his former Conceptions he discern'd that in stead of an History he had brought forth a Satyre against Gods Truth and his Church and the most Supreme and Sacred of those Governors whom our Lord himself had appointed over It and Him However This his History hath not so far corrupted the truth of Affairs as not to contain in it many Evidences very advantageous to the Catholick Cause and so much remains sound in it as may serve very well to confute that which is vitiated and in the main things that are charged against the Pope and Council especially concerning the Councils Liberty this History is found as it were to destroy it self by its own Contradictions A thing which observed by Phil. Quorlius an Italian Doctor produced his Book entituled Historia Petri Soavis ex Authorismet assertionibus consutata This account in my entrance I thought fit to give you of this Author that you may see what just credit on such a Subject he deserves out of whose Quiver the Reformed have taken most of those arrows with which they seek to wound this Council The chief of which I shall first summarily relate to you and so proceed to its intended Defence § 3 First then it is Objected by the Protestant Divines That this of Trent can no way truly be called a General Council as it is stiled by the Romanists 1. α. α Because it is necessary to the Generalness of a Council that some be there and those Authorized from all particular Churches See Archbishop Lawd § 27. n. 3. where he quotes Bellarmine ‖ De Concil l. 1. c. 17. for it §. 4. ut saltem But none from the Eastern Churches were present in this of Trent or so much as summoned or afterwards approved or consented unto its Acts And the number of the Bishops β. who were present from other Churches was frequently so small that in many Sessions it had scarce 10. Arch-Bishops or 40 or 50 Bishops present Bishop Lawd § 27. n. 2. And That it had not so many Biships present at the Determination of the weightiest Controversies concerning the Rule of Faith as the King of England could have called together in his own Dominions at any one time upon a Months warning B. Brambal Vindic. c. 9. p. 247. And see what Soave saith to the same purpose l. 2. p. 163. Add to this γ. γ. That it was not lawfully called so as General Councils ought and used to be namely by the Emperor and other Christian Princes but only by the Pope this was one of Henry the 8th's Pleas in his Manifesto's against it Lastly δ. δ. That the Popes themselves as many as lived in the time thereof would never consent that this Council should be affirmed to represent the Vniversal Church prudently foreseeing that if this were granted as in the Council of Constance it was the Council as being the whole would put off its subjection and depend no longer on the Pope that was but a part of it nor would need his confirmation to render it what it was before viz. the Representative of the whole Church thus Dr. Hammond Her 11. § n 8 9. This against its being a General Coucil § 4 2. That neither was it a plenary Patriarchal Council 2. for the West ε ε Because from some Churches in the West as from the Britannick and some other Reformed Churches there were no Bishops present there who also had just cause for their not coming thither B. Lawd ib. n. 2. neither can it justly be pleaded that they were Heretical or Schismatical Churches being never condemned by any former Council B. Brambal Answer to Chalced. p. 351. ζ. ζ. And of other Western Churches save only Italy present very few in all the Sessions under Paul the 3d. but two Frenchmen and sometimes none as in the sixth Session under Julius the 3d. B. Lawd ib. n. 2. â— And Twice so many Bishops out of Italy present as there were out of all other Christian Nations put together B. Bramb Vind. p. 247. as appears at the end of the Coucil where the Italians are set down 187. and all the rest make but 83. B. Lawd § 29. n. 2. Neither was this Council after its rising fully acknowledged or received by the Western Churches nor by the Britannick and other Reformed Churches Nor by the Gallican Church of the Roman Communion And Let no man say saith B. Bramb Vind. p. 248. that they rejected the Determinations thereof only in point of Discipline not of Doctrine for the same Canonical Obedience is equally due to an acknowledged General I add or other Superior
whose vigilant providence never deserts his Church either converts Him or removes Him I say however these things be stated yet as to our present business of Trent neither did the Pope out of any such private guilt of Heresie or other Crime forbear to call this Council nor when it was assembled and the Protestants complaints against the Pope well known did this supreme Court find any ground or cause of such extraordinary proceedings against him For 1st For his Presidentship in the Council which was excepted against how could the Council deprive him of this right which was no new tyranny or device but that office which his Predecessors had anciently exercised in the most unblemished Councils which the Church ever had Of which see what is said before § 46. c. And as for any false doctrines crimes or corruptions charged on Him this Council found none valid as to his own person either for removal of Him from such Presidentship or Deposition from his Dignity Pontifical § 124 Many corruptions indeed and great need of Reformation of several things both in the Church and in the Court of Rome as the Protestants complain'd of so the Council and also the Pope himself acknowledged And in the remedying of these the Council spent the longer part of their Acts which have been not meerly delusory as a late Writer would blast them †Stillingf Rat. Account p 482. who must one day give account to the celestial Majesty of his speaking evil of so sacred and Authority but very effective as to the having produced a vigorous and during Reformation in the Roman Church and that of the chiefest disorders complain'd of as is shewed more particularly below § 203. c. And this real effect it was which with an holy envy the Clergy of France discovered in other Catholick Countries and which made them so importunate with the King and State of France to give them there the like force and that this Kingdom alone might not be deprived of so great a benefit †See §. 77. c. And so much were these severe Decrees resented and dreaded in the Court of Rome that Soave †p. 8 6. reports That this Reformation was opposed by almost all the Officers of this Court representing their losses and prejudices and shewing how all would redound to the offence of his Holiness and of the Apostolick See and diminution of his Revenues Of which see much more below § 204. This in the second place that the Council who is only proper Judge of this Head of the Church if any so be and of these matters found no such weighty accusation against the Popes person as might justly abridge any of his priviledges therein nor that any Reformation in the Church or Court was obstructed by his Authority § 125 3. Lastly Neither doth the Popes calling or declaring the Lutherans 3. Hereticks before the sitting of this Council render him uncapable of being one of their Judges in it For this prime Governour in the Church is not a Judge of heresie only in the Council and other Popes as the fore-mentioned Celestine and Leo having formerly declared against the errors of Nestorius and Dioseorus yet afterward approvedly presided in Councils and there again condemned them But much more might the Pope call the Lutherans Hereticks without shew of wrong if so be that their tenents or some of them had been determined against and condemned in former lawful Councils as Pope Leo 10 in Bull. 8. Jun. 1520. pretended they were For if the opinion be formerly concluded heresie those who own it without a new process may be pronounced Hereticks Now t is clear that some of the Protestant tenents were condemned in the 2d Nicene in the 8. G. Council in the Lateran under Innocent 3. in that of Florence in that of Constance ‖ See below §. 198. Add to this * that Leo the 10th who sent forth a formal Decree against Luther and his followers to be proceeded against as Hereticks was deceased before this Council and presided not in it * that Paul the 3d. who first presided in this Council did not formerly pass any formal sentence against the Lutherans or Hereticks but only in his Bull concerning Reformation of the Court of Rome Obiter named them so which cannot have the vertue of a judicatory Decree yet in his last Bull of the Indiction of the Council in Trent forbears also to name them so * That Pius the 4th who renewed the Council and concluded it was absolutely free from giving them this offence therefore the Acts at least under him enough to condemn them are not upon this pretence to be invalidated But here it must not be forgotten that not only the Pope but the Emperour the King of France and sometime the King of England Henry the 8th before the Council pronounced them Hereticks published Edicts and denounced heavy punishments against them and yet afterward they did not for this utterly decline these Princes judgments as hoping that such proceedings might be upon better informations and second considerations reversible § 126 To the question asked here †Mr. Stilâ—ingf Râ—t Account p. 492. If the Protestant opinions were condemned for Heresies before by General Councils why was the Council of Trent at all summoned It is easily answered 1 st That though many of the Protestant tenents had been considered and condemned in former Councils yet not all because some of them not then appearing 2 ly Had all been so yet that it is not unusual both to Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts to reiterate their sentence and by new Declarations and perhaps new reasons too to enforce their former Laws and Decrees so long as a considerable party continues to gain-say and disobey them whereby is yielded also a Testimony to the world that the present Church Governours persevere both in the faith of their Predecessors and in their Resolution for the maintainance thereof So Arianism after the Nicen was condemned again by way of a continued Testimony to the truth of Consubstantiality by the Council of Sardica and Berengarius and his party being condemned by five several Councils before the great Lateran and that of Florence yet did not these forbear to reiterate the condemnation so long as others continued to maintain the Heresie CHAP. VIII II. Head The Invalidity of such a Council as Protestants demanded The Protestant-Demands § 127. The unreasonableness of these Demands § 132. Where Of the fruitlesness of many Diets framed according to the Protestant-Proposals to decide their Controversies § 127 THus much from § 53. of the first General Head I proposed § 8. concerning the sufficient generality of this Council to render it obligatory Now I pass to the second concerning the novelty canonical invalidity and probably ineffectiveness as to their carrying the cause of such a General Council as the Protestants demanded in stead of that of Trent and as should be regulated with all their
therein obliged to believe the Articles §. 195. n. 1◠or Canons of Trent or of other Councils in any other sense 3. than that which we have but now mentioned †§. 192. For that Clause in the Bull which follows the whole profession Haec vera Catholica fides extra quam-nemo salvus esse potest cannot be understood distributively in such a manner as if every Canon of every lawful Council is necessary explicitly to be known and assented to that any one may attain Salvation which few Roman Doctors will affirm of all the Articles of the Apostles Creed much less do they say it of every point whatever of their faith See Bellarmin de Ecclesiâ l. 3. c. 14. Multa sunt de fide quae non sunt absolutè necessaria ad salutem I add nor yet is the ignorance or mistaking in some of them such an error ex quo magnum aliquod malum oriatur But either * it is to be understood collectively In hac Professione continetur vera Catholica Fides c. that all the fides extra quam nemo salvus is contained in that profession which expression respects chiefly the Apostles or Nicen Creed set in the front of the profession as appears by a like expression Fundamentum firmum unicum applied to that Creed alone in Conc. Trident. 3d. Sess For if only some part of that profession of faith which is made in that Bull be absolutely necessary to attaining Salvation this phrase is sufficiently justified extra quam i. e. totam i. e. if all parts of it be disbelieved non est salus As saying that the Holy Scriptures are the word of God without believing which there is no Salvation argues not that every thing delivered in these Scriptures is necessary to be believed for Salvation but that some things are Or * It is to be understood distributively but this conditionally in such a sence as extra quam nemo salvus esse potest i. e. if such person opposeth or denieth assent to any point therein when sufficiently evidenced to him to be a Definition of the Church infallibly assisted and appointed his Guide in Divine Truths †See before For in so doing though the error should be in a smaller matter of faith § 192 he becomes therein obstinate and Heretical and disobedient to his spiritual Guide declared by the Scriptures infallible in all necessaries and so in this becomes guilty of a mortal sin which unrepented of exlcudes from Salvation Where also since the Church makes Definitions in points absolutely necessary hence though all her Definitions are not in such yet his obstinacy in not yielding assent to all matters defined runs a hazzard of failing in something necessary And well may Protestants admit such a sence of these words in Pius his Bull §. 195. n. 2 when themselves make use of a much larger upon the like words in the Athanasian Creed Haec est Fides Catholica quam nisi quisque fideliter crediderit salvus esse non poterit which words being urged by a Catholik against Archbishop Lawd to shew That some Points may become necessary for salvation to be believed when once defined by the Church that yet are not absolutely so necessary or fundamental according to the Importance of the matter All the points contained in the Creed being not held in this latter sence so fundamental or necessary ratione Medii to Salvation that none can possibly attain it without an explicit belief of them Here a late Protestant Writer †Stillingf p. 70 71. in answer to this can find out a sence of those words yet more remiss than that we have now given viz. That as to some of the Athanasian Articles Haec est fides Cathol c. neither infers that they are necessary to be believed from the matter nor yet from Church-Definition but necessary only if there be first a clear conviction i. e. not from Church-Authority but from Scripture that they are Divine Revelation Where the authority of the Church in defining these matters of the Athanasian Creed as to any obligation of her Subjects to conform to it seems quite laid aside since upon a clear conviction that those Articles are Divine Revelation from whatever Proponent one stands obliged to believe them and without such conviction neither stands he so obliged by the Church Upon which account the Socinian is freed here by his exposition from the Quam nisi quisque fideliter c. because he is not yet convinced of the Truth of this faith by Scripture Since Protestants then take such liberty in expounding the sence of this conclusion of the Athanasian Articles it is but reason that they should allow the same to the same words used by Pius § 196 4. Lastly If these words of Pius should be taken in such a sence as Protestants fetter them with Namely 4. That the Roman Church hereby obtrudes her new-coined Articles as absolutely necessary to salvation As Bishop Bramhal †Rep. to Chalced. p. 322. Which whether true or false one is to swear to as much as to his Creed As Mr. Thorndike †Epilog Conclus p. 410. That whereas the Church of England only excommunicates such as shall affirm that her Articles are in any part erroneous the saine Church never declaring that every one of her Articles are fundamental in the Faith by the Church of Rome every one of them if that Church hath once determined them is made fundamental and that in every part of it to all mens belief As Bishop Laud ‖ §. 15. p. 51. That supposing the Churches Definition one passed that thing so propounded becomes as necessary to salvation i. e. by this Proposal or Definition as what is necessary from the matter And That an equal explicit faith is required to the Definitions of the Church as to the Articles of the Creed and that there is an equal necessity in order to salvation of believing both of them As Mr. Stillingf †Rat. Account p. 48. If I say Pius his Haec est Bides Catholica must be taken in such a sence and then it be considered also that by the Bull this clause is applied not only to the Articles expresly mentioned in it but to all other Definitions also of all other former allowed Councils the Consequent is that in this Bull the Pope hath excluded from salvation and that for want of necessary faith the far greater part not only of Christians but of Roman Catholicks viz. all that do not explicitly believe and therefore that do not actually know every particular Definition of any precedent Council when as who is there among the vulgar that is not ignorant of the most of them who amongst the learned that knows them all Now the very absurdity of such a Tenent might make them suspect the integrity of their comment on those words and that they only declaim against their own Fancies When as indeed to render
Synodica ad Antiochenses And Epist. ad ubiq Orthodoxes S. Austin De verâ Religione c. 5. S. Hilary lib. contra Arrian S. Basil Epist 293. to some Egyptian Bishops And see in Theodoret ‖ Hist l. 2. c. 17. the jealous deportment of the Romans towards Felix who substituted by the Arrian Emperor in Liberius his place sent into banishment Tametsi saith Theodoret fidem in Concilio Nicaeno expositam ipse servavit integram tamen quia cum illis qui eandem labefactare studebant libere communicarit nemo ex Romae habitatoribus in Ecclesiam dum ille intus erat ingredi voluit And this resolution signified to Constantius happily procured the return of Liberius This of the Declaration of the Church against any such liberty of Christian Communion where soever our Secular interest or Education may be apt to fix us 3. But were there no such bars put in against it by the Scriptures or H. Church yet this were enough to disswade it § 288 that by remaining in any such separated Society either we are put to practice several things contrary to a right Faith and good manners and offensive to a a good Conscience or at least necessitated to forego the practice of many other things beneficial not to say necessary which are to be injoyed only in the Communion of this Catholick Church not so in others For a particular Catalogue of which not to be here too tedious I refer you to the Preface before the former Discourses touching the Guide in Controversies and to the conclusion of the third Discourse § 155 c. Lastly as for that internal Communion with the Church which it granted some who want the external may nevertheless injoy or the security of a votum where is an actual defect of the participation of its Sacraments that some may have they seem no way to such persons as those who are not by force hindred of her Communion but invited to it do voluntarily deprive themselves And partaking the Sacraments in voto signifies nothing to us where de facto we may have them and de facto do refuse them And then what other advantages can there be that can make us satisfaction for such a loss I will conclude this point with the Declaration sent to the followers of the Donatists some of whom for their stay in that Sect urged this very excuse we are now speaking to Nihil interesse in quâ parte quis Christianus sit by S. Austin and the rest of the Provincial Council at Cirta in Numidia presently after that famous Conference with them at Carthage A. D. 411. †S. August Epist 152 Quisquis ab hac Catholicâ Ecclesia fuerit separatus amongst whom they reckoned the Sect of the Donatists quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet hoc solo scelere quod à Christi unitate disâ—unctus est non habebit vitam sed ira Dei manet super eum And as for the Sacraments received in that separation Sacramenta Christi say they though celebrated in the same manner with them as in the Church in sacrilegio schismatis ad judicium habetis quae utilia salutaria vobis erunt cum in Catholicâ pace habueritis Caput Christum ubi charitas cooperit multitudinem peccatorum Thus much I fear not needlesly I have taken occasion from § 283. to set down in opposition to that irrational Fancy Nihil interesse in quâ parte quis Christianus sit not knowing but that this Discourse may meet with some Readers not much averse from such a perswasion For by the foresaid Arts of the Will mens Judgments are too apt to digest opinions very gross where the Secular advantages by these are very great 2. Thus much considered by a Judgment set at liberty in order to the first Art of the Will to deceive it Viz. It s keeping the Judgment in much ignorance as to the Divine matters and to a cold indifferency as to parties and diverting it wholy to other matters Next as to the Second mentioned before § 275. namely applying it indeed to the learning of these Truths but this only from those Authors and Instructors that are of its own party a rectified Judgment will as freely conclude and resolve That all those who are not well settled upon this Basis of Church Authority and so by a resign'd obedience have prevented all disputes ought rather in making such a quest after Divine Truth in so many Controversies agitated between parties and in chusing their Religion to apply themselves for learning it to the reading of those Books and Authors and discoursing with those persons who oppose the tenents in which they have been educated and to which all Secular or carnal advantages do incline them that thus they may bring things to some equipoise and having first heard the plea of both sides be able to make a truer Judgment And if in the issue neither side do seem to preponderate should chuse rather that to which their interest seems more averse for they may well imagine that men are ordinarily so far partial to their own sides that they would not think both equal unless that against 〈◊〉 were over weight and that a crooked staff to be made streight must be bent the contrary way And upon this such Judgment also will consider That since our first perswasions in Religion and the particular sect thereof wherein we live are not taken up upon our own choice but anothers who having some command over us anticipate our judgment and educate us in what opinions they please hence it is that our constancy and perseverance even sometimes to the loss of Estate and Life to whatever we thus casually first light on called by the name of Fidelity and love of Truth and the contrary perfidiousness and Apostacy is indeed before we have examined things better only a rash and inconsiderat Obstinacy and that on the contrary in prudence every one ought to put himself in a great indifferency to change those first principles he is thus seasoned and possessed with as he shall by new experience find cause and to esteem that only Constancy in his Religion i. e. in his true serving of God to alter every day and that through a thousand Secular obstacles to any thing wherein he conceives he may serve him better As in our manners when any way deficient we do this without reproach Yet further will consider since as hath been shewed there is but one Communion of all those various Sects in which promiscuously the Education of Christian Youth happens to be moulded namely that which adheres to the Supreme Church-Authority that is Catholick and truly disingaged of Schism That all those who find themselves to live under such Superiors as are broken off and stand divided from their Superiors and condemned by them ought to entertain a great jealousie of their present state and not acquiesce in any such Government at adventure but presently to reduce their subjection to
fortunes less necessitated to serve private interests are by all these the less liable to error of the two And that the confining of the belief of such persons to the directions of supposed fallible Superiors is of the two evils the much more tolerable than the leaving them in such high an spiritual matters to the roving of their own fancies For thus in stead of some few errors of the Church in matters obscure will be multiplied thousands of such persons in matters most evident and clear § 293 S. Austin speaks much on this subject in his Book de utilitate Credendi of the benefit of believing the Church written to his friend Honoratus led away by many extravagant Manichean dotages advising him submission of judgment to Church-Authority Nihil est facilius saith he †De utilitate Credendi c. 1. quam non solum so dicere sed etiam opinari verum invenisse sed reipsâ difficillimum est And †c. 12. Quis mediocriter intelligens non plane viderit stultis under which name he saith he comprehends all except those quibus inest quanta in esse homini potest ipsius hominis Deique firmissime percepta cognitio utilius atque salubrius esse praeceptis obemperare sapientum quam suo judicio vitam degere Hoc si in rebus minoribus ut in mercando vel colendo agro c. expedire nemo ambigit multo magis in religione Nam res humanae promptiores ad dignoscendum sunt quam divinae in quibusque praestantioribus sanctioribus quo majus ets obsequium cultumque debemus eo sceleratius periculosiusque peccatur And c. 17. he argues Si unaquae disciplina quanquam vilis facilis ut percipi possit Doctorem aut magistrum requirit quid temerariae superbiae plenius quam divinorum sacramentorum libros ab interpretibus suis nollecognoscere And c. 7. Nullâ imbutus poeticâ disciplinâ Terentionum Magistrum sine Magistro attingere non auderes Tu in eos libros qui quoquomodo se habeant sanctitamen divinarumq rerum pleni prope totius generis humani confessione diffamantur sine duce irruis de his sine praeceptore audes ferre sententiam c. And c. 16. Cum res tanta sit ut Deus tibiratione cognoscendus sit omnes ne putas idoneos esse percipiendis rationibus quibus ad divinam intelligentiam mens ducitur humana Thus he to induce Honoratus in such divine matters to yield the guidance of himself to Church-Authority And then the Church-Authority he would have him submit to he describes thus c. 17. Quae Ecclesia usque ad confessionem generis humani ab Apostolicâ sede per successiones Episcoporum frustra Haereticis circum latrantibus partim plebis ipsius judicio partim Conciliorum gravitate partim etiam miraculorum Majestate damnatis culmen authoritatis obtinuit Cui nolle primas dare vel summae profecto impietatis est vel praecipitis arrogantiae Nam si nulla certa ad sapientiam salutemque animis via est nisi cum cos rationi praecolit prepares them fides quid est aliud ingratum esse opi atque auxilio divino quam tanto labore praeditae praedictae rather authoritati velle resistere Again c. 16. Quae authoritas sepositâ ratione quam sinceram intelligere ut saepe diximus difficillimum stultis est dupliciter nos movet partim miraculis very frequent in his times See De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 8. partim sequentium multitudine And c. 14. Quae celebritate consensu vetustate roboratur And c. 11. Si jam satis tibi jactatus videris finemque hujusmodi laboribus vis imponere sequere viam Catholicae disciplinae quae ab ipso Christo per Apostolos ad nos usque manavit abhinc ad posteros maenatura est I have given you St. Austins advice somewhat more largely as hoping his words will have more weight § 294 And because if this obligation of submission of judgment to Authority for the unlearned not able to examin Controversies or the learned after examination in some degree unsatisfied be received for a truth thus the greatest part of Christians are hereby for ever settled in their religion and belief as to all points determined by the Church I will here also set down for the benefit of such Readers as most value their judgment the testimony of several learned Protestants in confirmation of it several of which have been mentioned in the former Discourses The Reader who thinks the allegation of witnesses needless in a matter so evident and would only know when Ecclesiastical Authorities divide and dissent to which of them his submission is due may omitting them pass on to § 296. In confirmation hereof then first consider that noted passage of Dr. Field in the Preface of his Book §. 295. n. 1. recommending to Christians chiefly the discovery of the True Church and when this found submission to it Seeing saith he the Controversies of Religion in our times are grown in number so many and in matter so intricate that few have time and leisure fewer strength of understanding to examine them what remaineth for men desirous of satisfaction in things of such consequence but diligently to search out which amongst all the Societies of the world is that blessed company of Holy ones that Houshold of Faith that Spouse of Christ and Church of the living God which is the Pillar and Ground of Truth that so he may embrace her Communion follow her Directions and rest in her Judgment In the same manner Dr. Hammond writes §. 295. n 2. in his Answer to the Catholick Gentleman chap. 2. p. 17. When the person is not competent to search grounds I add or not so competent as those to whose definition he is required to submit a bare yielding to the judgment of Superiors and a deeming it better to adhere to them than to attribute any thing to his own judgment a believing so far as not to disbelieve may rationally be yielded to a Church or the Governours of it without deeming them inerrable And in his Treatise of Heresie § 13. n. 2 3. he speaks thus of the Christians security from the Divine Providence in his adherence in matters of Faith to Church-Authority If we consider Gods great and wise and constant Providence and care over his Church his desire that all men should be saved and in order to that end come to the knowledge of all necessary truth his promise that he will not suffer his faithful servants to be tempted above what they are able nor permit scandals and false teachers to prevail to the seducing of the very Elect his most pious godly servants If I say we consider these and some other such like general promises of Scripture wherein this Question about the errability of Councils seems to be concerned we shall have reason to believe that God will never suffer all Christians to
whilst it is thus obeyed it only not he that sheweth it unto us is obeyed And if this were all the obedience that I owe unto others I were no more bound to believe or obey any other man than he is bound to obey or believe me The Flock no more bound to obey the Pastors than the Pastors them Yet certainly God who hath set Kingdoms in order is not the Author of such confusion in the spiritual regiment of his Church Thus Doctor Jackson tying all to obedience or submission to the judgment of their spiritual Guides save only those who are certain of a formal contradiction between God's Laws and their Injunctions To this may be added that much noted place of Mr. Hooker in his Preface to Ecclesiastical Policy §. 295. n. 4. § 6. commenting there on Deuteron 17.8 c. where it is said ver 11. According to the sentence of the law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee thou shalt do thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left God was not ignorant saith he that the Priests and Judges whose sentence in matters of controversie he ordained should stand both might and oftentimes would be deceived in their judgment However better it was in the eye of his understanding that sometimes an erroneous sentence definitive should prevail till the same authority perceiving such oversight might afterwards correct or reverse it than that strifes should have respit to grow and not come speedily to some end And here he answers the objection that men must do nothing against conscience saying Neither wish we that men should do any thing which in their hearts they are perswaded they ought not to do But we say this perswasion ought to be fully settled in their hearts that in litigious and controverted causes of such quality the will of God is to have them to do whatsoever the sentence of judicial and final decision shall determine yea though it seem in their private opinion i. e. according to their own reason and arguments drawn à parte rei to swerve utterly from that which is right as no doubt many times the sentence amongst the Jews did unto one or other part contending And yet in this case God did then allow them to do that which in their private judgment seemed ' yea and perhaps truly seemed that the law did disallow For if God be not the Author of confusion but of peace c And again Not that I judge it a thing allowable for men to observe these laws which in their hearts they are stedfastly perswaded to be against the law of God But their perswasion in this case i. e. where their Superiors have determined otherwise they are bound for the time i. e. till the same Authority reverse it and release them to suspend c. unless they have an infallible Demonstration Thus he Where you see he grounds their yielding to Authority and changing their former perswasion upon an non-certainty of such perswasion As for his limited expression before in litigious and controverted causes of such quality whatever he meaneth thereby the Commission and Injunction Deut. 17. extends to all litigious and controverted causes whatsoever As also it is more clearly drawn 2 Chron. 19.5 8 10 11. Where it runs What cause soever shall come to you of your brethren between blood and blood between law and commandment statutes and judgments ye shall c. And note also that the command Deut 17.10 Thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee requires not only a passive willingly paying mulcts or undergoing punishments but active obedience Again an active obedience not only in doing something thought by me lawful but to which I think I am not obliged but in doing also of something where the lawfulness of it is questioned by me which thing also here by the text I am to do if they command me And therefore after such Injunction I ought to alter my former perswasion concerning it and to believe either that in general it is lawful to be done or at least lawful to be done by me not certain of the contrary rebus sic stantibus and such sentence past § 296 To all these testimonies concerning the obligation which illiterat and ignorant or also though learned after much examination doubting and unsatisfied persons have to submit their judgment to Church-Authority I may add the apparent mischiefs which follow the contrary observed amongst Protestants neglecting this duty from the beginning of the Reformation Luther himself much lamenting the divisions he saw among his Disciples even in his own daies Ego saith he †Prefat comeut in Galat. qui jam sum in ministerio Christi viginti annis quanquam nihil sum vere possum testari me plus quam viginti sectis esse petitum c. And in Gen. c. 6. published not long before his death Quantum sectarum excitavit Satan nobis viventibus Quid futurum est nobis mortuis Profecto tota agmina Sacramentariorum Anabaptistarum Antinomorum Servetianorum Campanistarum c. And himself also is much noted for his varying from himself in his opinions often changed But still these divisions are more apparent in the longer course of his Schisme which daily multiplies and brancheth its self into more and more clefts and sects and some of them most gross and ridiculous and for which it is hard to find names and which their forsaken Leaders are much ashamed of whilst the Plebeians will neither study truth themselves nor follow the learned The mistakes of these persons in such high and Divine matters being greater as their science less and their opinions since weakly grounded floating and unconstant and from the usually prevailing interests of the flesh inclined to liberty and sensuality § 297 Of which Divisions Grotius in several of his writings sadly complains as caused by this that they will pitch upon no Superior and common authority by which they will be content to be guided and regulated in their Faith Protestantes saith he in his last reply to Rivet †Apolog. Discussio p. 255. nullo inter se communi ecclesiastico regimine sociantur quae causae sunt Cur factae partes in unam Protestantium corpus colligi nequeant immo cur Partes aliae atque aliae sint exurrecturae And in the Preface to his Votum pro Pace speaking of their primitive Dissentments Confessiones saith he factae sunt variis in locis variae atque inter se pugnantes non modo quae factae erant partes non potuere unquam inter se coalescere sed novae quotidie exortae sunt particulae tot ut nemo sit qui earum inire possit numerum ut faecunda est ista seges unoquoque sibi licere credente quod alius ante usurpavit credibile est novas quotidie extituras A presage at this time
Primitive Church But that those in the Primitive Church condemned many doctrines as such that were not so To the Sixth That the Doctaine of the Church of Rome is conformable and the doctrine of Protestants contrary to the doctrine of the Fathers who lived in the first 600 years even by the confession of Protestants themselves He Answers not by denying this but by retortion of the like to the Roman Church That the Doctrine of Papists is confest by the Papists contrary to the Fathers in many points But here he tells not in what points And had he I suppose it would either have been in some points not controverted with Protestants As perhaps about the Millenium communicating of Infants or the like or else in some circumstances only of some point controverted To the Tenth That Protestants by denying all humane Authority either of Pope or Councils or Church to determine controversies of Faith have abolished all possible means of suppressing Heresie or restoring unity to the Church He answers not by denying Protestants to reject all humane Authority Pope Councils or Church But by maintaining that Protestants in having the Scriptures only and indeavouring to believe them in the true sence have no need of any such authority for determining matters of Faith nor can be Hereticks and do take the only way for restoring unity In all which you see Church-authority and ancient Tradition led on the man to be Catholick and the rejecting this authority and betaking himself to a private interpretation and understanding of the Scriptures and indeavouring to believe them in their true sence reduced him to Protestantism He mean-while not considering how any can be said to use a right indeavour to believe Scripture in the true sence or to secure himself from Heresie or to conserve unity * who refuseth herein to obey the direction of those spiritual Superiors past present Fathers Councils Bishops whom our Lord hath appointed to guide and instruct his Church in the true sence of Scriptures as to matter of Faith Vt non fluctuantes circumferamur omni vento doctrinae c. Eph. 4.14 Again * who refuseth to continue in the Confession of the Faith of these Guides so to escape Heresies and to continue in their Communion so to enjoy the Catholick unity And what Heresie at all is it here that Mr. Chillingw suppresseth which none can incur that is verily perswaded that sence he takes Scripture in to be the right and what Heretick is not so perswaded For professing any thing against ones Conscience or Judgment or against what he thinks is the sence of Scripture is not Heresie bu Hypocrisy And what new unity is this that Mr. Chillingw entertains that none can want who will but admit all to his communion whatever tenents they are of that to this Interrogatory whether they do indeavour to believe Scripture in a true sence Will answer affirmatively †See his Preface §. 43. parag To the 10th But this is beside my present purpose and his Principles have been already discussed at large in Disc 2. § 38. c. So much of Mr. Chillingw By these Instances the disinteressed will easily discern what way he is to take if he will commit his ignorance or dissatisfaction in Controversies to the guidance of Antiquity or Church-Authority past when he sees so many of the Reformed in the beginning but also several of late deserting as it were their Title to it excepting the times Apostolical as not defendable 5. Lstly In all this he will be the more confirm'd when he observes that these men instead of imbracing and submitting to the Doctrines and Traditions of former Church-Doctrine fly in the last place to that desperat shift of the early appearance of Antichrist in the world who also as they say must needs be comprehended within the Body of the Church and be a professor of Christianity nay must be the very chief Guides and Patriarchs thereof and these as high as the Fourth or Fifth age nay much sooner say some even upon the Exit of the Apostles A conceit which arm'd with the Texts 1 Jo. 2.18 little children as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come so are there even now many Antichrists and c. 4. v. 3. This is the spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world arm'd I say with these Texts misapplied to the persons whom they think fit to discredit at one blow cuts off the Head of all Church-Authority Tradition Fathers Councils how ancient soever And the main Artifice this was whereby Luther made his new Doctrine to spread abroad and take root when he had thus first taken away all reverence to former Church and its constant Doctrines and Traditions as this Church having been for so long a time the very seat of Antichrist Babylon the great Whore and I know not what And after this ground-work laid now so much in Antiquity as any Protestant dislikes presently appears to him under the shape of Antichristian Apostacy and in his resisting and opposing the Church he quiets his conscience herewith and seems to himself not a Rebel against his spiritual Governours but a Champion against Antichrist But on these terms if they would well consider it our Lords promises to the Church that it should be so firmly built to the Rock as that the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it and the Apostles Prediction that it should alwaies be a Pillar and ground of Truth are utterly defeated and have miscarried in its very infancy For how can these Gates of Hell more prevail than that the chief Guides and Governours of this Church signified by the false Prophet Apoc. 13.11 c. with great signes and miracles shall set up Satans Kingdom and Standard in the midst of it shall practice a manifold Idolatry within it and corrupt the Nations with their false Doctrines and lastly maintain this kingdom of Satan thus set up I say not without or against but within the bowels of the Church now by the ordinary computation of Protestants for above Twelve hundred years whilst the Emperor and other Roman Catholick Princes are imagined during all this time to be the Beast or Secular State that opens its mouth in Blasphemy against God and makes war with the Saints †Apoc. 13.6 7. To whose Religion this false Prophet gives life Apoc. 13.11 15. Both which this Beast and this False-Prophet for their Idolatry and Oppression at the appointed time before this expected now they say not far off shall be cast into the Lake or poole of Fire For so their doom runs Apoc. 19 20. And the Beast was taken and the False Prophet and both these were cast alive into a lake of fire § 312 And this so great and mischievous an error becomes in them much the less excusable since the latter world hath seen the appearance of the great False Prophet Mahomet upon the stage and since
against Conscience 2. And again That to one liable to error in some things yet some other things may well be so plain and manifest that he may have abundant certainty thereof And 3. That such a Demonstration of his Certainty as proposed to any that understands the terms satisfieth and convinceth him is good But these granted yet a Judgment well purged from Secular Interest will here also consider 1. That it is no such easie matter as it is thought to arrive at certainty in things intellectual where our sences do not assist us and especially those that are Divine and Spiritual * where these things not being collected by Reason but originally delivered to us by Divine Revelation both the matters are many times very mysterious treating of the perfections wisdom and waies of God His Divine Laws and Sacraments things above our natural reach and the words also signifying these to us are many times not free from several acceptions literal and figurative else all persons would agree in the same sence so that apparent contradiction in the words by distinguishing of some term is none in the sence but both the verbal Contradictories very true * Where again these Revelations being many and all most certainly true none may be taken in such a sence as to contradict any other And lastly * where the true essence of things abstracted from all their Accidents which accidents again cannot be known to us to be so but by an actual separation being not perfectly known to us hence also though it be most certain to us that two contradictories cannot be true yet is it most difficult to discern what things truly contradict For it is a Contradiction only when the same thing is denied of or removed from its felf As this a man is not a man Or this A man is white and not white where the formal Contradiction being resolv'd is whiteness is not whiteness Manhood is not Manhood And it is no contradiction but truth when ever a thing is denied of any thing not it self Therefore this what is or is not the thing it self or its essence must exactly be known before a true and reall contradiction be so And this difficulty which is indeed in all nature must still be the greater in these things spiritual and more remote from sence of which we are speaking Cum res tanta sit saith St. Austin †See before §. 293. ut Deus tibi ratione cognoscendus sit omnesne putas idoneos c. And Tu in eos libros qui sancti Divinarumque rerum pleni c sine Duce irruis And Nihil est facilius quam non solum se dicere sed etiam opinari verum invenisse sed hoc reipsâ difficillimum est And therefore in that excellent Treatise †De utilirate Credendi he adviseth them first laying aside such fancies of certainty to believe the Church Quo illuminaturo praeparentur Deo And indeed who is there if he reflect upon the many seeming certainties that he hath had in some opinions afterward forsaken that will not perceive that this conceited certainty is an ordinary fallacy which those who know least and so have least reason to think themselves certain are most subject to Qui ad pauca respicit facile pronunciat § 319 But then further If in those things Divine this particular point wherein we pretend a certainty be such as that the supremest Church-Authority proposeth to us the contrary as certain an Authority not to mention here the supernatural assistance promised them of the same or better abilities than we for their Intellectuals and that hath all the same external means and Grounds of the knowledge of such point as we perhaps more to whom also all the Grounds Motives Arguments of our certainty of it have been communicated persons likewise we ought to presume of as much diligence in searching truth as much integrity and freedom from passion and interest as our selves For these judge for themselves as well as for their Subjects and set down their own as well as prescribe anothers faith this I say will make any such conceited certainty on our side yet much more irrational See more said of this in the 4th Disc § 11. And lastly besides all this our pretended Demonstrations being put to the trial according to the former Protestant Definition of a demonstration will prove constantly false as from which so many rational and learned persons hearing or reading them continue to dissent Neither here will the plea of the perspicuity and clearness of the Scriptures in such point ordinarily the chief pretence we have for our certainty any way relieve us or release our obedience to these Governours but rather promote it Because if these Scriptures to us clear so will they be to them Or if these Scriptures like the Israelites Cloud be light to one and darkness to another our humility ought to believe that the light side of it will be rather toward the Church-Governours than toward us when singular and differing from them who also are appointed to enlighten us ‖ Mat. 5.14 § 320 The four main points that are maintained by the supreme Church-Authority to which Protestants refuse conformity and at which they take most offence and many of them charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry and Sacriledge 〈◊〉 1. The corporal presence of Christs Body and Blood in the Eucharist and consequently Adoration of them as present 2. Worship and Invocation of Saints 3. Veneration of Images 4. Communion in one kind As for a fifth which might be added The language that ought to be used according to several Nations in the Celebration of the publick Service of God I here omit it Supposing this might be easily so accomodated as solely to be no hinderance of an union where all the other real Controversies are accorded between the two Churches For the First then of these four points the corporal presence of our Lord in the Eucharist § 321 from which follows Adoration Since as hath been shewed in the first Discourse § 62 and more copiously in the Historical Disc of the Eucharist § 35. a possibility thereof is not opposed by many of the Reformed and the true sence of Hoc est Corpus meum and of other Scriptures whether de facto these do declare it so present is that by which this Question between the two Parties must be decided I see not what Demonstrative certainty any Protestant can rationally pretend of the sense he gives to these Scriptures in opposition to that other sence of them which is maintained by Church-Authority and hath been by so many Councils expresly declared long before Protestancy thought on Of which Councils see 1 Disc § 57. c and this after so long and subtile disputes for about three hundred years viz. from the 2d Nicen Council to the daies of Berengarius and after so diligent an Examination on all sides of Primitive Tradition by Paschasius Bertram and others
know the truth or 1 Tim. 6.3 Wholsom words and Doctrine of Godliness But might he not have said more aptly such a Synonymaâ— as that in Psal 32. Verbo Domini Caeli firmati sunt omnis virtus eorum firmati sunt Caeli id est virtus eorum Or Psal 147. Magnus Dominus magna virtus ejus Dominus id est virtus Domini But if the Greeks mean as he saith indeed they do That the Bread by Consecration is made out Lords proper Body though not that Numerical one born of the Virgin yet another added to it by way of Augmentation and so in some sence made the same with it viz. so as our nourishment is with ours by the Union and inhabitation of our Lords Divinity to and in them both and lastly that by its being thus made our Lords Body it hath also the vivificating vertue of his natural Body inherent in it then I say in plain dealing this Person expounding the Expressions of the Greeks ought to have confessed their maintaining the presence in the Eucharist of this Substance of Christs Body as well as of its Vertue this Substance I say of which they affirm that it is the same with the other crucifyed so far as to be united to the same Divinity and in the same person of our Lord and from this to receive the same vivisicating Vertue though indeed this new Substance from that crucifyed numerically distinct Nor consequently ought he to impose upon the Greeks as every where he doth their holding the Bread after Consecration to remain still so entirely Bread as it was before but only the matter of it so to remain as the matter of our Nourishment doth when yet that which was Bread is now truly our Flesh and no more Bread our Flesh not by I know not what Mystical Relation to it but by a most interior receptio and incorporation into it and dispersion through that our Substance or Flesh which was existent before Nor lastly using the same integrity ought he to have said this new Substance to have been held by the Greeks augmentative of Christs Natural Body or also to be the same with it as the Greeks alwayes say it is by reason of a supernatural vertue of Christs Natural Body communicated to it as he usually explains them for one thing may have the Vertue of another without being an aug mentative part of it or contracting any Identity with it But that this new Substance is held by the Greeks an accruit to our Lords natural Body and the same also with it from its Vnion to the Divinity and so its change into Christs Flesh and so its partaking also the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graces or Vertues of it which the Greeks speak of with much reason as well as of the substance because in these we are most concern'd Thus perhaps with much less labour might this ingenious Person have comprehended in his Answers and Explications of the Greek's opinion more Truth and gained from his Readers more belief And for this I appeal to any sober Person when he shall have considered M Claudes concessions set down below n. 11. and the necessary consequences of them n. 12. But this person well saw the great prejudice he should do to his cause in explaining these Authors in such a manner which would have made a fair way at least toward a Total Transubstantiation and therefore judged it safest to hold fast to a vertual presence Now in this way he takes many of these Expressions seem so clearly to say the contrary to what he would have them as a proof can hardly be brought against such anfâ—wes that will not have as little or perhaps less evidence in it that the thing that is proved And in such manifest wresting of an Authors clear sence it is Conscience only must confute such gain-sayers not an Argument And in such cases it concerns the Reader not easily to resign his Reason to anothers engagement's nor suffer his Judgement to be figured with the impressions of every mans fancy especially when opposing Church Authority nor to apprehend difficulty in every thing so long as he sees it to be contested This of M. Claude's Art in evading of such as seem very evident and indisputable Testimonies § 321 6. But n 9. 6ly Suppose such clear and express Testimonies produced as that no such answers can discountenance them nor no Exceptions be made against them then especially out of the 1 st and 2 d. Observations precedent he hath some at least against the Person Urge against him the Testimonies of the Modern Greek Writers such as will admit none of his Qualifications He tells us many of them are Greeks Latiniz'd and won over to Rome Or the writing quoted wants another testimony that it is not forged such as lived in the same times having in their writings not mentioned such a Piece thus he throws off Samonas and Agapius †l 4 c. 3. Proceed in adding to these the testimonies of several Dignifyed persons of the present Greek Clergy and that in several Countreys and Churches of the East distinct and averse from the Roman Communion By a diligent Collection of which his prudent Adversary hath done the Church Catholick great service * in manifesting that the doctrine and practice of the Greeks not only touching Real presence and Transubstantiation but most of the other Controversies agitated in the West consents and agrees with the Church of Rome and * in representing to the more ingenuous amongst Protestants how singular they stand and divided in their Faith from the whole Christian world He tells us They are the Declarations only of Greeks Latinized and corrupted by the Roman Missions Though the same persons still maintain their dissent from the Latines as to those Points formerly in Controversie between the two Churches and though the Testimony they give is not so much concerning their particular perswasion as what is the Common Tenent and Profession of the Greek i. e. those no way reconciled to the Roman Communion or other Oriental Churches A matter wherein a false testimony as it would carry a greater guilt so lies too open to discovery Urge to him the testimony of the Orientals especially persons dignifyed in the Clergy that have travailed about some negociations into the West He saith l. 5. c. 5 p 594. There is little credit to be given to this kind of People who come not usually into the West but for their own Interest and who fail not to speak in such a manner as one would have them Urge to him the testimony of those of the Greek Communion inhabiting in the West and here indulged their own Service and Rites easily inquired into as for example the Greek Church in Venice See Respon 2. part 2 c. 8. his answer to what was urged out of Gabriel Archbishop of Philadelphia the Prelate there That we are not to think it strange is one who had lived some 40 years in
Synods For M. Claude saith The word of God contains nettement clairement all that which is necessary to form our Faith and that the most simple are capable to judge of it c. Unless the Protestant Controversies be never about any thing necessary This is the way M. Claude thought on to leave no Doubters though never so unlearned among Protestants as to the Eucharist or other Points of their Faith But mean while if after such Speculations of his any such Doubters there be I do not find but that he leaves so many wholly to D. Arnaud's disposal viz. that they return to and remain in the bosom of the former Church so long till they become certain of its errors and not follow strangers that have not entered by the dore into Christ's Fold and I hope they will consider it As for the settling of our Conscience this person speaks of by resting our Faith immediately on Gods Word I see not where the sence of the Scriptures is supposed the thing controverted how any one rests his Faith more immediately on God's word by following his own Exposition or Sence thereof or the Exposition of a Minister c. for some person's exposition he must follow than he that follows that of the Church If we are then for a total application to the Scriptures and for searching things to the bottom Let us search there first this main Point that decides all other concerning our Lord's establishing a just Church-Authority for ending contentions Where we shall find also that he is not a God of dissention or Confusion 1 Cor. 14.33 Eph. 4.11 14 1 Cor. 12.28 in his House the Church but of Peace And That he hath given his Clergy in a certain Subordination that we should not be carryed about with every wind of Doctrine as we must be when ever these disagree in expounding Scripture to us if we have no Rule which of them to follow The truth of this once found out by our search will save many other searches of which without it I see no end In vain do we endeavour with whatever pains so discern Gods Truth without the illumination of his Holy Spirit and Grace and since revelat parvalis in vain expect this without great Humility and self-dâ—s-esteem and a reverent preference of and pious Credulity toward our just and lawful Spiritual Superiours Credendo first i. e. Ecclesiae saith S. Austin in his Tract De utilitate Credendi †c. 1. praemunimâ—r illuminaturo praeparamur Deo To resume then here the matter we were speaking of before § 321. n 27. § 321. n. 1. from which we have so long digressed For such Persons as are self-confident despisers of Superiors much pre-engaged whatever evident Testimony Truth may have on its side I can affirm nothing For Pride and thinking they see utterly puts out their eyes But I think so many as are no way thus intangled and are humble and well affected to Authority will by reading the pieces aforesaid be reduced either to a full perswasion on the Churches side in this great Point or to a Dubitancy and uncertainty of that which is maintained against it And then this later only as hath been shewed †§. 291. c. is a sufficient Ground and Inductive of their conformity to it I mean to the authority of the present Church In this point then the main Trial seems to be 1. Whether Antiquity indeed so understood and Councils declared the sense of these Scriptures as is pretended Since as Mr. Thorndike hath it in his Rule of Reformation †Forbea and Penalties c. 8. this is to be taken for granted That nothing can be the true sence of Scripture which the consent of the whole Church contradicteth 2. If this found so whether this Authority ought not to prescribe to any particular judgment especially when he perceives the new pretended Demonstrations to the contrary no way to perswade this present Church-Authority as any true Demonstration in the Protestants Definition of it necessarily must For the Second Point Invocation of Saints 1. It is granted by Protestants §. 322. n. 1. that if the Saints deceased hear or otherwise know our requests made to them it is lawful to invocate them or desire their prayers for us as we do those of Saints here and the invocation of them in any other manner Catholicks disclaim 2. It sufficiently appears from the knowledge of things done ‖ or said †2 King 6.8 9 12 31.32 in absence that several Prophets †King 5 25. Act. 5.3 Col. 2.5 and other Saints of God by Revelation or Vision have had here in this life that it is possible that the Saints glorified without imagining any their omni-presence or omni-science may know by the like Revelation Representation or Vision or by some other way as God pleaseth for the particular manner thereof is no way stated by the Church may thus know I say either all or so many of those prayers that are made to them though at the same time by several persons in the most distant places as it may concern their Petitioners touching any benefit to be received by their Intercessions that they should know them Lastly possible that the Saints Glorified may know these or some other instrument of God's mercy viz. Angels know these for them or in their stead for this clause also is put in by St. Austin proceeding most cautiously in this matter These things I say are possible And if any of these be put it is abundantly sufficient to render Invocation of Saints glorified not vain For to frustrate the benefit here of the Saints must neither know nor others for them who only upon their general Intercessions offered may be as God pleaseth made his instruments in relieving the necessities of such Supplicants They must neither know all nor any of our affairs or prayers For if they or others for them only know and relieve some it will be lawful at any time in any thing to implore their help who we know not but in that time and thing they may assist us Again suppose neither the Saints nor others for them save God only to know at all our particular prayers or wants but the Saints only in grosse to intercede for all those that implore their help or yet more generally only for all their fellow-members here that are in distress whether imploring or not imploring their help yet if God at least apply the benefit of any Saints general Intercessions more particularly to those who more particularly honour and with their addresses sollicite such a Saint Such Invocation and Honour still remains profitable and advantageous to the Supplicant Where note §. 322. n. 2. that neither those who make nor yet God who reveales their prayers to the Saints do it at all for this end that so the Saints may make known such their prayers to God a thing in which Protestants please themselves to find absurdities and
utilitate Cred. c. 1. that he was enticed by the Sect of the Manichees on this account because they promised Se terribili authoritate separatâ merâ simplici rations or as afterward magna quadam praesumptione pollicitatione rationum cos qui se audire vellent introducturos ad Deum erroreomni liberaturos And Se nullum premere ad fidem nisi prius discussâ enodatâ veritate And again †Ibid c. 9. Eos Catholicam Ecclesiam eo maxime criminari quod illis qui ad eam veniunt praecipitur ut credâ—nt se autem non jugum credendi imponere sed docendi fontem aperire gloriari And therefore he saith in his Retract l. 1. c. 14. That upon this he writ against this presumption of their's his Book De utilitate Credendi Or Of the benefit of ones believing Church-Authority This from § 318. of the weak Grounds Protestants have of pretending Certainty against Church Authority § 330 2 But next Suppose a person may be infallibly certain of and can truly demonstrate something the contrary of which Church-Authority delivers as certain yet if this certainty be only of such a Truth from the knowledge of which ariseth no great benefit to Christians or to the Church or at least not so much benefit as weighed in the ballance will preponderat this other benefit of conserving the Churches peace Here again these Demonstrators Protestants also being Judges are to yield to Church-Authority the obedience of silence and non-contradiction and are to keep such Truth to themselves and not to disturb the publick peace after any thing defined to the contrary by divulging it to others § 331 In vindication of such obedience thus Dr. Potter ‑ It is true when the Church hath declared her self in any matter of opinions or of rites her Declaration obligeth all her children to peace and external obedience nor is it fit or lawful for any private man to oppose his judgment to the publick Where he saith also That by his factiously opposing this his own judgment to the publick he may become an Heretick in some degree and in foro exteriori though his opinion were true and much more if it be false After him Bishop Brambal thus †Schism guarded p. 2. That Church and much more that person which shal not outwardly acquiesce after a legal Determination and cease to disturb Christian unity though her judgment may be sound her practice is schismatical And Vindic. of Church of England p. 27. When inferior Questions saith he not fundamental are â—nce defined by a lawful General Council all Christians though they cannot assent in their judgments are obliged to passive obedience to possess their souls in patience and they who shall oppose the Authority and disturb the peace of the Church deserve to be punished as Hereticks Doctor Fern Division of Churches p. 81. requiring conformity of Sectaries to the Church of England argues thus If Sectaries shall say to us You allow us to use our reason and judgement in what you teach us True say we for your own satisfaction not to abuse it against the Church But we do not abuse it say they but have consulted our Guides and used all means we can for satisfaction We tell them You must bring evident Scripture and Demonstration against publick Authority of the Church and next having modestly propounded it attend the judgment thereof But what if after all this go against them To which if you cannot assent inwardly yet yield an external peaceable subjection so far as the matter questioned is capable of it Thus he states the point Now such an external peaceable subjection and obedience as hath been often said if it were well observed stops all Reformations as to these points that are found of less consequence the Demonstrators Truth must die with him Nor thus will any Disciples be drawn from the Church or their Pastors to follow Strangers § 232 Next To know whether the truth they are so certain of be also of so great weight as that the Churches peace and external unity is to be broken rather than such a Truth strangled or lost what less thing also can secure them for this that it is a Truth of much importance than that which secures them of their certainty that it is a Truth namely a Demonstration hereof Now the Evidences Protestants have brought either of the one or the other either that such Church-Doctrines are errors or if so errors of great consequence have been heard and considered by Church-Authority And these by it neither thought errors intollerable nor errors at all But if Church-Authority may not interpose here and every one may rely on his own particular Judgment when truths or errors are of moment when not who is there when his thoughts are wholy taken up with a thing and he totus in illo and perhaps besides troubled with an itch that that knowledge of his which he esteems extraordinary should be communicated and that se scire hoc sciat alter will not thus induce himself to think the smallest matters great Lastly concerning truths of much importance let this also be considered Whether that which is so much pretended by the Reformed that the Holy Scriptures are clear in all Divine Truths necessary doth not strongly argue against them that none of those things wherein they gain-say the Church are matters much important or necessary Because all these Scriptures clear in necessaries will surely be so to the Church as well as to them As they grant these Scriptures to be generally as to all persons perspicuous in all those common points of faith that are not at all controverted § 333 3. But let this also be allowed That the error of Church-Authority is not only manifest but that it both is and is certainly known to be in a point most important and necessary and that neither the obedience of assent nor yet of silence or non-contradiction ought to be yielded to Church-Authority therein yet all this granted will not justifie or secure any in their not yielding a third obedience meerly passive viz. a quiet submission to the Churches censures however deemed in such a particular case unjust Whereby if this censure happen to be Excommunication he is patiently to remain so as who in such case injoyes still the internal communion of the Church though he want the external till God provide for the vindication of Truth and his Innocency But by no means to proceed further to set up or joyn himself to an external communion apart and separated from that of his Superiors and such a communion as either refuseth any conjunction with them or at least is prohibited and excluded by them which must alwaies be schismatical as being that of a Part differing from the Whole or of Inferiors divided from their Canonical Superiors by which now that Party begins to lose that internal Communion of the Church also which when unjustly excommunicated and acquiescing therein he still
Sanctificatis intelligitur oppos'd to videtur ut Deum celebrant Where M. Claud's note is †l. 3. c. 7 p. 222. that Non adorant dona sed Jesum But who saith that a Soveraign Adoration is due or given to the Dona Again 2 Jesum saith he qui intelligitur i. e. only qui representatur in Donis But all the former Expressions implying our Lords presence shew their belief to be contrary Tues said the Priest before qui offers offerris assumis distribueris Christe Deus noster And the People after this adoring in their receiving say Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini of which the same Cabasilas Tanquam nunc ad eos venientem apparentem Christum benedicunt Who also before c. 24. intimates the custom of the Greeks in the Service adorare alloqui corpus sanguinem Domini Now I say All these Passages in the Greek Liturgy well considered Here for one to grant the Real and corporal Presence of our Lord in his whole Person in the Holy Mysteries to be believed by this Priest Deacon and other Communicants and yet to say their Adoration and other Addresses and Allocutions are not given and made to him as there present but to him only as in Heaven or only to his Divinity as there and every where present abstracted from his Humanity is such a Comment upon this Liturgie as nothing but a strong pre-ingagement can force upon any ones judgment The Testimonies §. 321. n 23. this Author brings †l. 3. c. 7. p. 216. do accuse the Greeks of some neglect in this Duty but do not shew them to justifie it and these very Persons that censure such neglect toward the Holy Mysteries after Consecrated accuse them almost of committing Idolatry toward them before So that it seems rather some defect of knowledge in such concerning the Ceremonies of Consecration than want of Devotion Cabasilas †c 24. long ago observed the same in some ignorant People and blamed it but yet in the same place allows the Adoraâ—ion of and Allocutions made to the Body and Blood of our Lord when the Offerings are Sacrificed and perfected The Consecration also of the Greeks being longer extended and the Adoration not so unitedly peâ—formed presently upon the pronouncing of our Lords words of Institution as amongst the Latines but disjunctively at their communicating might occasion some mistake in those Latines who accused them of a Non Adoration So the other irreverences and indecencies objected are to be esteemed only negligences in privâ—te practice not consequences of the publick Doctrine nor countenanced by their Liturgies Which Lâ—turgies use as much Ceremony towards the Holy Mysteries as the Roman doth Where also first the Remains of the Holy Bread are carefully put into the Chalice for the People to be communicated threrewith and then for the Remains after the Communion consummated Sacerdos saith the Rubrick quod residuum est Communionis in Sancto Calice cum attentione devotione consumit ter S. Calicem abluit attendit ne remaneat particula Margarita vocata not the least crum of the intinct Host As for several Devotions and Honours performed to the Blessed Sacrament here in the West which this person dâ—ligently reckons up much to its praise not so in the East freqâ—ently urged by M. Claude as good Arguments of the Greek Church not believing Transubstantiation or such a Real Presence as the Roman and in latter times here more than in the former 1 st they are held no such necessary circumstances or consequences without the which a Real Presence may not be believed and a due Adoration in some convenient manner or other practised 2 ly The occasion of them is well known to have been the Berengarian and many other Errors concerning the Eucharist which appeared here in the West but disturbed not the East Which Errors inferrâ—ng many Indignities and affronts to this richest and dearest Legacy of our departing Lord caused the Church to multiply also the external testifications of her Devotion Gratitude and Reverence to it and Gods wisdom as usually out of such vilifyings and disrespects extracted a greater Honour as to External Ceremony to these High Mysteries So also the many subtle Questions that have been discussed and stated among the Latines not so much thought on by the Greeks but all shut up in a Quo modo novit Deus another frequent Argument with this Author of the Greeks not believing Transubstantiation acknowledge the same Originall viz. the Provocations Objections contrary false positions of the Heterodox Which forced the Church to descend to the same particulars with them Nor could she censure these as Errours without establishing their Contradictories as Truth This of Adoration To conclude The many Concessions of M. Claude § 321 n. 24. and the Consequences of them forementioned seem to me sufficient 1 st to disswade any sober and modest person who relies not on his own judgment for the controverted sence of Holy Scriptures but holds it a safer way to conform to that of Church-Authority to disswade him I say from any such Communion as he sees by the former Account opposed both by the Latines and the Greeks Greeks present or past as high as Damascen in the 8 th age and may not I say as high as Gregory Nyssen †See before in the 4 th whilst both these Latines and Greeks hold a Real or Corporal presence of our Lord in the Eucharist §. 321. n. 14. and agree in a literal sence of Hoc ost Corpus meum Nor will M. Claude enter with his Adversary into this Controversie 2. Next to perswade him of the two rather to the Roman Communion as whose Transubstantiation besides that it hath been established by so many Councils †See the guide in Controversy Disc 1. §. 57 58. is of it self much more credible and more accommodated to the Scripture-expressions then I know not what Augmentation of Christs natural Body born of the Blessed Virgin by a new Breaden one assumed in the Eucharist numerically distinct from the other yet by the like assumption and Union to our Lords Divinity rendred personally one and the same Body with it But much more will be confirmed in the same Resolution if by what hath been said above †§. 321. n. 16 c. he discerns M Claud's Relation of the Modern Greek opinion unsound and that the main Body of them except perhaps some few Impanatists that have been there as also in the Western Church in holding a total substantial change of the Bread have accorded with the Roman Church I hope the Reader will pardon this digression §. 321. n. 29 the rather because it serves much to illustrate that whereof I was discoursing †That notwithstanding whatever evidence of Truth Answers and Replyes from Persons ingenious and pre-ingaged find no end and that when Controversies are by one of the contending parties denyed any Decisive Judge though
error may easily be overcome yet it can hardly be silenc'd For as God for the greater tryal of our obedience hath permitced in the world not only Evil but very many allurements also and enticements to it so not only Errors but many verisimilities and appearances of Reason ever ready to support it with those that do not by Humility attain the illuminations of his Grace Evidence sufficient God hath left always to clear and manifest all necessary Truth to those who are of an obedient Spirit and willing to learn it But not sufficient to force like the Mathematicks the Understandings of the self-confident and interested to gain-say it But that they may have some fair colour or other to oppose to it and catch the credulous All which still more infers the great necessity of Church-Authority and a conformity to it and the reasonableness of Monsieur Mainbourg's Method for reducing Protestants to the true Faith †§. 321. n. 10 viz. That matters once decided by this Authority should be no longer disputed A Rule the Protestants i. e. the more potent Party of them for preserving their own peace would have to be observed in the Differences among themselves shewed in the proceedings of the Synod at Dort of which see before § 254. n. 2. but not in those between them and Roman Catholicks because here they are the weaker To whom M. Claud's answer in the Preface of his last Reply to D. Arnaud is this It is unjust saith he that he will have the Decisions of Councils to be Prescriptions against us the Protestants not remembring that nothing can prescribe against Truth especially when it concerns our Salvation And the Determinations of Councils not being with us of any Consideration but as they do conform to the Holy Scriptures and to the Principles of Christian Religion we cannot have from hence any reasonable or profitable way to end the particular differences that divide us but only this to examine the matter to the bottom to discern whether such conformity i.e. of the Councils to the Scriptures which we suppose necessary is or is not To which he adds there as also frequently elsewhere That the shortest and surest and only right way for settling the Conscience in repose which must rest its Faith immediately on Gods word Divine Revelation is for both Parties to proceed to the Trial of their cause all other Authoritie and Methods laid aside by the Holy Scriptures And when he is pressed by his Adversary That in these Controversies at least all persons doubting i e. what is the true sence of the Scriptures controverted and of Antiquity expounding them and not certain of the contrary of what the Church teacheth concerning them as all unlearned Protestants must be ought herein to conform and adhere rather to the Church than to Separatists he seeks to decline it thus That the simplest person may receive sufficient certainty from the clearness of Scripture in all matters necessary that from these Scriptures learning what he ought to believe he may easily know also whether the society he lives in be a true Church and such as will conduct him to Salvation that hence he needs not trouble himself with Controversie touching what the former Church hath believed Yet that our Lord promising to be with true Believers to the end of the word so as they shall not fall into damnable error Chariâ—y obligeth him without his reading them to believe that the Fathers are of this number and so believed as they ought and so were of his Faith To give you his own words l. 1. c. 4. The word of God saith he contains purely and clearly all that which is necessary 〈◊〉 form our Faith to regulate our Worship and Manners And God assisting us with his Grace it is easie for the most simple to judge whether the Ministery under which we live can conduct us to salvation and consequently whether our society is a true Church For for this he needs only examine It as to these two Characters One if they teach all the things clearly contain'd in God's word and the other if they teach nothing besides that is contrary to those things or doth corrupt the efficacy and force of them And afterward This Examen saith he is short easy and proportion'd to the capacity of all the world and it forms a judgment as certain as if one had discussed all the Controversies one after another Again l. 1. c. 5. There are two Questions One touching what we ought to believe on the matter of the Eucharist The other touching what hath been believed by the ancient Church The first of these cleared we need not trouble our selves about the 2d Now as for those of our Communion the first Question is cleared by the word of God And for the 2d he resolves it thus l. 1. c. 6 That the Promises of J. Christ assure us that he will be with true Believers to the end of the world Whence he concludes that there hath always been a number of true Believers whose Faith hath never been corrupted by damnable Errors Then that charity obligeth us to believe that the Fathers were of this number And then lastly We knowing from Scripture what we ought to believe in this Point we also are confirmed without studying them that the Fathers believed the same Now to reflect briefly on what he hath said in the order it lies here A Council saith he cannot prescribe against Truth True But the Council is brought in for a Judg where a dispute Question is what or on what side is the Truth The determinations of Councils are not with us of any consideration but as they do conform to the H Scroptures Right But the Council is call'd in for a Judg where a doubt and dispute is what or on what side is the true sence of such and such Scriptures Where if he meaneth that they refuse to submit to a Council unlesse conforming to Scripture as the sence of Scripture is given by the Council that is it we desire for the Council will still profess its following the sence of Script if as this sence understood by the Protestants what is this but to say they will submâ—t to the Judgment or Decision of a Council so often as it shall agree with their own The only reasonable and profitable way to end differences is this to examine the matter to the bottom i.e. whether the Decisions of the Council conform with H. Scripture But when this is done How will the Difference end Will not the Controversie as the Replies multiply swell rather still bigger as his and D. Arnaud's doth Search to the bottom Suppose a Socinian should say this against the former Church-decisions concerning the Trinity the supreme Deity of the Son and H. Ghost Gods essential Omnipresence his absolute prescience of future Contingents c. will Protestants say he makes a rational motion Then how can any Protestant rest his Faith in these Points upon the